This Wackadoo Stuff
by Mystic25
Summary: In the Interim to "Don't You Forget About Me." It was night when they all walked back into Jody's home. What happened in that night.
1. Chapter 1

"This Wakadoo Stuff"

Mystic25

Rating: T for language and imagery.

In the Interim to "Don't You Forget About Me." It was night when they all walked back into Jody's home. What happened in that night.

Author's Note: I realized after I wrote this that Jody's home was one story and not two, but I am writing some scenes as AU, so for the sake of this story, she has another floor to her house.

 **xxxxXxxx**

" _At the end of the day, the goals are simple:_

 _safety and security."_

~Jodi Rell

 **xxxxXxxxxx**

"You need a hand with that?"

"I got it," Jody's voice came from behind the mass of blankets in her arms. The tower of cloth swayed a moment later eliciting a 'hey' from Jodie as the bundle of quilts was pulled away from her grip, revealing Claire's face.

"You're supposed to be taking it easy remember?" Claire said. "No 'turn down' service."

"The same goes for you," Jody leant up on one aluminum crutch. She had been given two in the ER, and had been instructed to _use_ two; but found that she could maneuver easier around her home with just one. She stared at Clare's face; her eyes were stained of black eyeliner that smudged into a bruise colored an eggplant purple on her right cheek. The garish slight of drying blood on her neck peeked out around the white sterility of a bandage, telling Jody that Claire hadn't taken a shower yet. She nodded to Claire's bandaged neck. "What happened to the ice you were getting for that?"

"It's nothing, just a bruise and some blood." Claire held the blankets tighter to her body, brushing off Jody's remark. "It's not like I needed crutches like you do."

"Quit changing the subject," Jody was a mixture of anger and concern. "Get an ice pack."

"I will if you sit down-" Claire eyed Jody's one crutch under her arm. "You put the guys in the spare room upstairs, you planning on frog hopping up there?"

"I'll manage," Jody had grown accustomed to the banter of teenage girls, by reading a lot of self-help books and drinking. _Lots_ of drinking.

"Or I could just run these up there," Claire said like it was the most obvious solution.

"Nice try, but they gave me enough drugs in the ER that I can manage _flying_ up the stairs."

"Hey I'm just trying to help-"

"I know you are," Jody said. "But, you're exhausted. Even if you don't want to admit it. And right now, I want you parked with a pack of frozen peas against your neck and another on your cheek understand?"

Claire stared at the blankets she was holding. One of them was a quilt, slightly worn, with various squares that looked like they had been cut out of a child's shirts. "Yeah sure-"

"Tell Alex the same goes for her or I'm handcuffing you _both_ to the couch!" Jody ordered.

"Yes ma'am," Claire gave her an innocent looking smile that almost looked totally authentic.

Jody smiled at Claire's attempt to do what she asked, especially considering what they had just come home from. "That's my girl." She took the quits back from the teen, piling them up under her chin and readjusting her crutch so that she could somewhat walk and somewhat see. She moved towards the stairs with this gait that were just through a wooden framed opened doorway.

Claire rounded the wine colored overstuffed couch heading over the hardwood maple floors into the kitchen. Once in there she pulled open the door to the fridge with a force that rattled things inside. She stuck her head in the blast of cold air, looting around until she came up with a white bag of frozen okra. She made a face at Jody's choice of vegetables before turning around to the butcher-block countertop, banging the block of slimy frozen vegetables on the counter to try and break it into smaller pieces.

A noise came from behind her, on the opposite side of the door that led into the garage, a rattling sound of metal. Claire tensed for a moment, hand going for the blood stained sword before she realized that she had left it on the backseat in the Winchester's Impala. She slid the kitchen drawer open next to her, pulling out a serrated steak knife. The noise continued, but didn't travel closer to the door, like someone was moving around in the garage, or outside of it.

She heard a soft curse in a voice that she recognized, making her release a sigh ending on a swear, abandoning the okra and the knife on the counter. She grabbed her hoodie from where she had tossed it on the back of one of the dining room chairs and walked out through that door.

 **xxxxxXxxxx**

Walking up a narrow set of wooden steps with two massive quilts, a crutch, and a leg that barely escaped traction was more complicated that Jody would let on. Had someone been standing at the top of landing watching her hobbled attempt to make it to the second floor of her house, she might have more of a game face on. However, since no one was watching, she allowed herself a mumbled round of strong curses, the kind that got her sent to the principal's office on many occasions after biology, and that scared more than one criminal she arrested long after biology had been passed.

Her last curse ended on a breath of relief as the rubber tip of her crutch hit the stained maple floor after the last step. The second level of her house wasn't a full story, it was barely viewable from the street, half hidden by an Ash tree that had stood on the property for almost 15 years. It had been a loft until she and her husband had gutted it over several consecutive weekends and converted it into a guest suite complete with on suite bathroom and private entrance to the yard. The walls were made of Bur oak that stood out a honey blonde against the maple floor below. Against the right wall stood a wooden buffet table that had been a present from her mother-in-law; it rose midway to her chest and was coated in a pale whitewash. Several framed images of her husband and their son Owen sat there, along with a faded crayon drawing Owen had made for her one day in kindergarten. It often was harder for her to think about Owen because – even though it was _unhuman_ the way he had come back from his grave – she hadn't questioned having her son back. He had been six, too young to die from an ear infection that turned into a raging staph infection that had swallowed his life away in a week. So she had welcomed him, like resurrection was something that came like the change of seasons. It wasn't until she saw him, over his father – covered in his father's blood, that she realized that it _wasn't_ her son. That he would never come back, and in wanting him back she had lost him all over again, as well as her husband.

Next to these pictures stood a newer one of her and Alex, taken in a photo booth month after she had taken Alex in. She had a weekend off and had taken the girl to the local fair. It had been quirky and way too folksy, but the cotton candy and the ride on the collapsible Ferris wheel had given Alex a rare smile across her face. It had taken Jody a long time to break Alex out of her attitude, of her _fear_ of being used as bait – but gradually she came back to life like something had died in the winter, and it had brought Jody back to life as well. And the addition of a boyfriend and a favorite teacher in Alex's life this year had been one of the greatest things that could have ever happened to the teen.

Jody's thoughts pulled away like splintered wood when she thought of how it had all been a lie. Alex had been played, been hunted down and forced to relive torture, and she didn't know how long it would take for her to come back from something like this. But she also knew that Alex was tough, that she would somehow survive.

But tonight, Jody wasn't thinking about that, she wanted one damn night for all of them to just lie down and get some sort of rest before the next thing was thrown at them.

A noise pulled her out of her head. The second story was built like a squat half hexagon with walls that slanted outwards. The bathroom was on the right, the guest bedroom on the left, and directly ahead was a window that overlooked the backyard. The door to the guest bedroom was partway open.

A noise came from behind her - a hurried set of footsteps on the stairwell. Jody swiveled around on one crutch as best she could without falling on her ass.

" _Alex-"_ Jody watched the girl step up beside her in the hallway in bare feet and clean pajamas, hair newly washed, but face a mess of bruises and congealing blood from a cut under her eye. "I thought I told you go sit down!"

"You did," Alex said. "Claire passed on your verbal threat."

"Then why aren't you listening to it?" Jody insisted.

Alex held up the blue checkered dish rag Jody used in the kitchen, it was bundled around something lumpy.

Jody eyed the makeshift bundle "What is that?"

"It's ice," Alex held up the bundle higher, a drip of cold water leaking out of the Ziploc bag of ice the rag was wrapped in. "For my face."

"You got ice and brought it up _here_ to put it on your face?"

"It's-" Alex paused, seeing Jody's eyeing her in a ' _don't lie to me'_ way. "It's not for me-"

"Then who's it for?" Jody's voice was slipping into the tone she used during interrogations, thought it wasn't as harsh. "Alex?-"

A loud creaking thud came from the partly opened bedroom door like someone had dropped a bookcase, of they were trying to lift off of themselves.

Jody's head jerked towards the sounds coming from behind the door. She had offered the bedroom to the guys for the night, despite their insistence that they would be fine to head out. She came very close to ear pulling and Indian burns on both of them before they finally caved in and agreed.

"Dean?-"

"Dean's outside," Alex cut Jody off. "I saw him working on his car in the driveway."

Jody turned back to Alex "Is Sam with him?"

Alex shook her head.

An uneasy feeling danced its way down Jody's back. "Sam? -" Jody eyed the dripping blue rag in Alex's hand. "That's who you needed the ice for?"

"He said he got hit a little harder on the back of the head than he thought-" Alex said.

Jody whirled on her, hearing the news that Sam was complaining about being hurt for the first time. "When he and Dean were waiting for me in the ER he said he was fine-"

"He said didn't want to make a big deal about it. I mean; you said before they're both used to getting banged up after a hunt-" Alex trailed off when she realized that it was the wrong thing to say after Jody's face shifted again into a look that she had seen too much right before she broke down a door to get someone out of a bad situation.

Jody turned back to the partially opened doorway. "Sam?" She shoved the bundle of quilts at Alex, calling out a little louder _"Sam?"_ when there was no answer. She limped her way across the short distance to the room in wider strides than were meant for her crutch and broken leg to handle.

"Jody, wait! -" Alex followed after her, afraid that her crutch might break from the amount of force she was using on it.

Jody made it to the guestroom door, screwing knocking as she pushed it open with the flat of her hand.

 **xxxxXxxx**

 **[** _"My answer, is no."_

" _Fine,"_ Lucifer _spoke in a half disappointed voice, like he'd been rejected one too many times from a school dance by the same girl. "Plan B" He sighed, then drew back his fist._

 _The force of a steam train plowed into Sam's face, snapping the cartilage in his nose like paper mâché. He had no time to recover before another blow came, and then another one. He was slammed to ancient iron and steel with a heavy crack of his skull, blood pouring out of him._ **]**

" _Sam?"_

Sam's fingertips were bloody, leaving a red dot trail on the armoire as he pulled up on it to regain his footing, hearing Jody's voice from beyond the door.

 **[** _"You made me do this,"_ _Lucifer stood over Sam with a straddling stance. "I was going for easy peasy rice and cheesy mental torture, but you had to go shooting your mouth off," Lucifer bent down over Sam, who had no room to even recoil from him properly. "so now I'm angry-"_ _The devil grabbed a fistful of Sam's shirt in his hand, staring down at him with a sad sort of resigned smile. "You never liked me when I'm angry Sam." he drew back again and aimed a low trajectory punch that broke through Sam's eye socket._ **]**

" _Sam?"_ Jody's voice was louder, closer.

Sam shook his head, feeling pain pulsate in his head that threatened to take his knees out from under him. He gulped down one more breath like a too hot drink, pushing all his weight against the armoire making it slide with a screech against the wooden floor. He stood back into an upright position as the door creaked opened with a force that slammed it against the wall.

Jody emerged in her leg brace, leaning heavily on one crutch, moving in a fast stride to reach him.

The world swam for a moment in a blurry focus, and there was a minute where Jody mouthed something that he didn't hear, but he was able to read her lips:

" _What happened?!-"_

"Nothing," Sam held up his hand to Jody, his hearing and vision finally equalizing enough so that he could do this without gripping onto the furniture "Sorry, I was putting away my stuff-" he gestured to his bag on the bed, then set his hand against the armoire. "This wasn't as sturdy as I thought."

Jody glanced at the armoire seeing the red fingerprints across it. In another blink she glanced at Sam's fingertips, seeing blood hanging off of them like finger paint, calling bullshit to his lie. "That's solid maple Sam-"

 **[** " _That's solid iron, "Lucifer knocked on the floor of his makeshift cage, his free hand bowing Sam's head backwards against the bars of the cell. "Crowley's bitch at least found good subcontractors. Feels just like old times, huh Sammy?"_ **]**

Something touched his arm, and a phantom reflex took over making him jerk backwards. His head swam, and the world became a pinpoint.

"Sam!" Jody's voice replaced Lucifer's, his grip became her grip.

"It's okay-" He felt more than half of his weight falling on Jody. He pulled up. "I'm okay-" He tried to back away, but she was still gripping his arm in her free hand.

"My ass you are- Alex!" Jody yelled over her shoulder to Alex. "Give me a hand!"

Alex came around moving her smaller frame under Sam's arm for support before he could protest.

"Get him over to the bed-" Jody braced herself against Sam's other side, standing soldier tall even with the crutch under her arm.

Alex moved with Jody and pulled Sam towards one of the two fold out beds in the room. Sam outweighed the teenager easily by about half her own body weight, and he tried to lift himself up before he crushed her. But the momentum Alex was using was strong enough that he was only able to pull away from her and Jody about three steps away from the bed.

He stepped out of both of their grasps and dropped his weight onto the bed that held against his sitting position with a loud protest of squawking springs.

Jody stood over Sam, holding her hand out to Alex "Give me the ice."

Alex looked guilty at Sam like she had ruined his plan of being inconspicuous, dropping the dishtowel wrapped ice bag into Jody's open hand.

Jody closed her hand around the cold bundle, looking at Sam. "Where is it?"

"Jody I'm fine, really," Sam saw the way she held herself on her crutch, upright, but with enough of a tremble for him to know it had to be hurting her to be standing at all. "You should be sitting down-"

"Show me where, Sam." Jody said. "I'm not asking again."

Sam looked up at her, unable to find another method of escape under her unrelenting gaze. Instead of answering with words, he gestured vaguely to the back of his head.

Jody limped around to the other side of the bed, propping herself up on her crutch under one armpit. She shifted her fingers around in his hair until she felt a stickiness, seeing blood that had seeped an inch into the surrounding strands of his hair. She pressed the bag of ice against this point.

The cold and the pressure of the ice pack against his head made Sam wince before he could stop himself.

"That's what happens when you get reamed with a two-by-four by a teenager hopped up on being a vampire," Jody's told him.

"Thanks," Sam lifted his hand to the back of his head holding the ice in place.

"What about your ribs?" Jody lowered her hand from the ice pack. "You took a major hit," she glanced at his stomach. "Anything broken?"

"Doesn't feel like it," Sam absent mindedly running his hand across his mid-section.

"Shirt off, let me see."

Both Sam and Alex started at Jody's remark.

"Jody-really, it's fine- I don't think I got more than a couple of bruises."

Jody narrowed her eyes at him in a warning. "Don't make me do it for you."

Sam opened and closed his mouth like a landed fish, letting out a breath. He lowered the icepack from his head and set it on the mattress. He unbuttoned the white dress shirt he wore, stripping it off to his gray undershirt. He pulled the shirt up from his abdomen revealing a puddle of black and blue that covered the skin under his ribs down like a leaking ink stain.

Jody cursed in a whisper under her breath. _"That's_ why you call fine?" She set her hand against his chest, and his wince was audible, muscles retracting involuntarily, betraying some of his stoicism.

Alex stared at the bruises that were spread across Sam's chest and stomach. " _That's_ what you call a couple of bruises?" her words stumbled over Jody's.

Sam looked down at the bruises under his shirt. "Trust me I've had worse."

"So have I," Alex returned. "Doesn't mean that right now doesn't hurt like a bitch."

Sam laughed, but then regretted it when it caused a burn to ripple up his bruises.

Jody wasn't deaf to the noise. "That needs a hell of a lot more ice than what you have."

"I'll get it," Alex volunteered, wanting to do something to help since it was basically _her_ fault that Sam had been hurt in the first place.

"Great," Jody said appreciatively. "Then after, you'll park it on the sofa and stay there."

"I want to help," Alex insisted.

"I know you do," Jody said. "But you've been through a huge ordeal tonight, you need to rest."

"I'm too wired to rest, Jody-"

"Well you're trying anyway."

Alex backed up and looked at Jody in a challenge. "Only if you take some pain pills and go to sleep."

"This isn't a negotiation!"

"You're right it's not," Alex crossed her arms over her chest. "But it's what you have to do if you want me to sit down."

Jody stared hard at Alex and finally sighed. " _Fine._ But your ass better be on that sofa when I get back downstairs."

Alex stared Jody down right back, silently agreeing. "I'll be back in a minute." She headed to the door and disappeared down the stairs.

Once Alex had vanished down the stairs a growling sigh escaped Jody's voice. " _Teenagers_. It's been so long since I was one, I'd forgotten how much of a pain in the ass they can be."

Sam gave a low laugh. "She's a good kid."

"Don't I know it," Jody's voice shifted from exasperation to affection at the thought of Alex. She looked down at the melting ice pack sitting on the bed and picked it up. "You know this works better if you actually use it." She picked up the icepack and pressed against Sam's bare skin.

Sam set his hand over the bundle to hold it in place. "Yes ma'am."

Jody backed up and sat down on an old leather covered steamer trunk that was next to the bed. It held a lot of old family relics including a set of skeleton keys from her great-grandfather's first house, and her wedding dress wrapped up in butcher paper. A breath blew out of her once she was off her feet.

Her gesture didn't go unnoticed by Sam. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'll live" Jody responded. "Couple of weeks I'll be back to my fighting stance." She laughed dryly. "I've been plowed into this leg so much that I can pretty much run in these things." She patted the crutch under her arm, then set her eyes over to him. "Teenager's out of the room Sam." She leant forward. "Time for an honesty check, how are you _really_?"

"I'll live too," Sam returned, "This isn't my first set of bruised ribs and concussion, I think I'm close to reaching some sort of Grand Master Status."

"That's not what I mean," Jody paused for a long moment, then leant forward more like she was afraid that she would be overheard. "Dean, told me about-" She let out the smallest breaths. "-about what happened to you."

The night air outside tickled the gauzy white curtains hanging on the window behind the bed, blowing in the smell of grass, dirt and the last dredges of winter air.

"I'm okay-"

"Not saying you need to be Sam," Jody responded. "It's not a requirement, not after surviving something like that-"

"Really, I'm good," Sam said. "I mean, I wasn't, right after – but I laid low for a while, and I talked to Dean, and things leveled out-"

"So what was that a minute ago?"

"Residual," Sam laughed dryly, admitting something he hadn't yet said out loud. "Sometimes things are harder to beat back. But I manage it-"

"Sam-"

"It's done Jody; I mean it's not like – it wasn't like it was before-"

"What about Dean?" Jody asked. "Does he know about this?"

"He knows enough."

Her eyes grew wide. "You can't keep something like this from him-"

"Dean has enough to deal with," Sam lowered his eyes to his hands, studying the blood drying on his fingertips. "Whatever else is swung my way, I owe it to him to handle it."

"Being trapped with the devil isn't a thing you handle on your own Sam!" Jody's voice was a shock of low disbelief. "Not when you have a brother like Dean, when you have _me! "_ She reached over the gap between them and gripped his wrist. "I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like - but I'm here if you ever need to talk, understand?"

"You mind if I take a rain check on that?" Something painful flitted across Sam's eyes. "I think I'm tapped out tonight." He gave one last dry laugh but in the light of the room, his eyes shone.

Something hard tugged and burned at Jody's chest. She reached her hand up off his wrist and set her hand in his, closing her fingers up into his larger hand.

The door to the bedroom creaked open. Alex stood in the doorway, with a quart sized bag zip lock bag of ice in her hand. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Sam cleared his throat and rubbed at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger like his head hurt. He looked back up reaching out to take the bag of ice when Alex handed it to him. "Thanks."

Jody released Sam's wrist and stood back up slowly, leaning for a moment on her crutch. She took two limping steps until she was standing next to him on the bed, placing a hand on his hair and kissed him against the side of his head.

Sam blinked in the moment, in having the solidity of someone like Jody.

"Come on," Jody turned to Alex, "You. Downstairs. Now."

Sam watched Jody limp back to the door. "Hey you need any help going back down?"

"I got it," Jody turned back around eyeing him, and then the bed. "You already fell on me once Winchester, so park it."

A quiet smile pulled across Sam's face. "I'm parked."

He watched as Jody disappeared out the doorway and back down the stairs.


	2. Chapter 2

**xxxxXxxx**

" _Once I was seven years old, my mama told me, go make yourself some friends or you'll be lonely."_

~Lukas Graham "Seven Years"

 **xxxxXxxx**

Claire rested her arms against the metal edge of the hood of the Impala, leaning down to look inside the engine. "So you just do this for _hours_ and it's a form of entertainment?"

"No, it's a form of _satisfaction._ "

Dean watched as the girl rolled her eyes from under the glow of the shop light clipped under the hood. "You were the one who snuck out here past your bedtime, don't roll your eyes at me."

"I'm _eighteen,"_ Claire insisted. "I don't have a bedtime."

Dean stuck his head out from under the hood, an oil slicked socket wrench in his hand. "You want me to tell Jody you said that?"

Claire shrugged in the indifferent way only an 18-year-old could pull off. "Like I care what she thinks."

"Well that sounded convincing," Dean ducked back under the hood. "Especially given all you went through to save her tonight."

"I saved your asses too," Claire watched Dean remove the brace on the hood and stood back up as he lowered it back down to the body of the car with a quiet slam of the black steel. "If it wasn't for me, you and Sam would be dead right now."

"Kid, if it wasn't for you, me and Sam's asses wouldn't have been in that mess in the first place – not that it was your fault, can the look," Dean said after Claire's expression had flared into hostility. "I'm just saying, I've done the whole: I 'don't give a shit about people' teenage thing, and it makes you look _ungrateful_ , not cool. Especially because I know you _care_ about Jody, _and_ Alex."

Claire looked at him in a dare. "So what if I do?"

Dean pulled a blue bandana out of his pocket and wiped the oil off of his hands, leaning against the side of his car. "It'd be one of the smartest things you ever did."

Claire fell silent. She walked around the back of the car and around to the other side, half vanishing into the darkness that existed at the end of the driveway. But she appeared a moment later and leant on the Impala a few inches away from Dean. "It's just – everyone I cared about before this has ended up _dead_ , or taken and juiced dry by some angel. How do I know that's not gonna happen this time?"

"Those are a million-to-one odds Claire," Dean said.

"So were they when they happened the first time," Claire returned in a voice that was too weary to match up with her age. "So what else do you have? Because I've heard it all before."

"Not from me you haven't," Dean told her. "I can't erase what happened in your past, but it's _past._ Don't be so angry about what happened before that you don't live _now_ , because now what's always gonna count most. And, right now, you have a home, and someone who cares enough about you to stick by you through all the mess and crap that may come next."

Claire studied Dean across the night. "Is that why you do this with Sam?"

Dean studied Claire right back. "It's one of the reasons." He walked to the passenger side door and opened the green cooler lying across the backseat, pulling out a brown bottle of beer.

"So family first huh?" Claire said.

"Always." Dean twisted the cap of the bottle, tossing it somewhere into the grass, and took a drink.

"Even when it's not your real family?"

Dean turned to her. "You really think they're not your real family?"

Claire didn't say anything for a long moment. "Can I bum one of those? For pulling your ass out of the fire?" she eyed the beer in Dean's hand.

"Nice try," Dean returned. "But I'm not about to get my arm twisted by the sheriff."

"I told you – Jody doesn't scare me."

"Hey-"

Claire jerked away from Dean like she'd been burned.

"Hey," Dean responded to Sam.

Claire let out a breath when she saw Sam walk over to them from across the yard, hands inside the pocket of his blue canvas jacket.

"Claire thought you were Jody," Dean said with an amused voice at the teen's reaction before looting back inside the cooler, pulling out a second beer bottle that he held out to Sam.

"Shut up." Claire elbowed Dean.

"Yeah, well if you see her don't rat me out," Sam took the bottle from his brother. "I kind of snuck out from upstairs after she ordered me not to."

"Sneaking out for a piece, Sammy?" Dean said with a grin. " _You dog."_

"Yeah I wish," Sam returned, then looked guilty when he remembered Claire was standing there and he and Dean were having the banter that they were. "Sorry – I mean," he cleared his throat. "I guess I just got hit harder on the head than I thought. Jody was just concerned."

Dean eyed his brother. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Sam returned. "I mean, I am now."

Dean's look went sideways. "What do you mean _now_?" Sam didn't respond, opening his beer bottle and not looking at his brother. "Sammy?" The teasing tone of his voice was completely gone.

"I-uh-" Claire broke the silence, sensing she was in an awkward place right now. "I better get inside before Jody tracks me down. Don't worry Sam, I got you covered on this." She gave Sam a kind of solidary pat on the shoulder and walked across the driveway that had collected a light layer of frost since she had come out there.

Dean watched the girl disappear down the driveway and back into the garage.

"She's a good kid," Sam said hearing the door that led in to the house from the garage close. "Even after everything she's been through she's hanging tough-

"What do you mean you feel okay _now_ Sam?"

When Sam looked away from the garage, Dean's eyes were dead set on him.

"I haven't told you everything- about Lucifer," Sam watched Dean's look melt down from confusion to a _'what?'_ look at his words. "Those visions I told you about- I'm still having them, except," his breath hitched like it had gotten caught on a nail going down his throat. "Except now they're more like nightmares, like a repeated loop of what he did to me."

"And why didn't you tell me this?" Dean's voice was more disbelief than accusatory.

"Because we have enough to deal with already with the Darkness," The night air wasn't cold enough to smoke Sam's breath into the air, but it was cold enough to sting sliding down his throat. "I just didn't want to add to it with something that was my fault. It was my idea to go down to hell in the first place, so whatever the consequences are-"

"Getting waylaid by the devil isn't a consequence, it's _torture-_ plain and simple." Dean said. _"_ When that smarmy dick Crowley told me where you were- I found that cell because I heard you screaming-" His expression became like thick paper being balled up slowly, his hand tightened around the beer bottle going just one strength level below crushing it. "If I had gone down with you this never would've happened," He couldn't look Sam in the eye for a long moment. "You needed me, and I let you get dragged back there – Sammy I'm sorry."

Sam's eyes searched for his brother's "When I was trapped in the Cage, I used to pray that you'd come and get me. Dean I prayed, _every day_ for one hundred and eighty years. Even when I couldn't walk anymore, or see, or when Lucifer ripped my heart out of my chest and I was still alive-" Sam's next breath trembled out of him and the quickest of tears escaped his eyes and dropped to the concrete. "You came back for me – you got me out, and you did the same now. Don't ever apologize for that."

"Okay," Dean's grip on the beer bottle slackened, and he reached out with his free hand to thump Sam on the back with a touch that lingered.

Sam took another breath like he had just swallowed burning whiskey. He twisted the cap off his own beer and swallowed some down, brown foam spilling out onto his fingertips.

Dean glanced over the stains of redness dotting the ends of Sam's fingers, and did a double take. "That blood?"

Sam looked down at the drying redness thickening on the ends of his fingers. "Yeah. Two-by-fours man," he took another pull of beer.

"Well next time remember to duck," Dean swallowed mouthful of his own beer.

Sam snorted a laugh that shot foam up his nose, the noise managing to echo into the night. "You're an idiot."

" _Hey-"_

The sound of a female voice emerged from behind a banging screen door. Jody limped out across the grass on her crutch in a pair of flannel pajamas and long sleeved shirt and her canvas jacket, a pair of running shoes on her feet. She walked a fairly good clip for someone with a broken leg. Her eyes were locked on Sam.

"I thought I told you to park it, Sam Winchester! Do I handcuff you down too?"

Dean looked amused at the way Sam squirmed under Jody's double name reprimand.

"I was just getting some air," Sam said quickly, shooting Dean a look at the way his brother was looking at him in amusement.

Jody eyed the beer bottle in Sam's hand, her eyebrows. "Got an extra bottle of _air_ back there?"

"Should you be mixing opiates with alcohol?" Dean asked her, but still got out another bottle of beer from the cooler in the backseat.

"I had the same leg broken _three_ times by something supernatural, I can handle passing out from tag teaming drugs." Jody twisted the lid off her bottle and took a swig. "Plus I didn't take any. I used to snort shirt as a kid, the taste of those pills always brings me back."

Dean looked at Jody. " _Really?"_

"Don't act so shocked," Jody returned. "The closest I got to being demur was learning how to spell it in high school."

"No arguments there." Sam took another swallow of beer.

Jody smiled at him in the dark like she was proud of that fact. "You and Dean get everything squared away?"

Sam looked at the woman, then over her head at Dean. "Yeah we did."

"Good." Jody swallowed more beer blowing out an audible breath.

"So how's Alex holding up?" Dean asked.

"She's tough," Jody turned to him, a bruise leaking in a dark purple stain under her eye. "Tougher than I actually ever was at that age. I just wish she didn't have to be."

"You're doing the best you can." Dean told her. "In the end it's all you can do."

Jody swallowed a mouthful of the night air. "Yeah," she took another drink, eyeing the stars that had come out overhead, shining through the clouds. "Think I'm ready to turn in." she looked over at Sam. "You're not planning on trying to pass out again?"

"I'll be okay." Sam reassured.

Jody looked over to Dean. "You making sure of that?"

"Yes ma'am," Dean answered. "I always do."

Jody smiled, taking one last drink of beer, and patting Sam on the shoulder. "Goodnight guys." She turned and limped back through the grass and into the house.

 **xxxxXxxx**

It was three am when Alex came awake from a dead sleep having to use the bathroom. Her cheek stung with a burning stung pain she raised it off the pillow. She climbed out of the bed slowly, hoping not to wake up Jody. She had mom instinct like bat sonar, once she heard when Alex accidentally dropped a bag of tampons on the floor of the bathroom when she was outside in the garage.

Alex set her feet gingerly on the floor and did her best to walk on tip toes out of the bedroom to not make the boards creak. She stepped over the pile of clothes that smelled like blood, moving out into the hallway, the wood cold on her feet.

Jody's house was almost pitch black at night because it was out in the country enough that there were barely any streetlights to shine in through the window. This was something that she had to take time to adjust to. She had lived with a constant light supply on so the nest would know if she tried to run. She walked past Jody's bedroom, the door halfway open. Jody lay asleep on her side in a queen sized bed under a gray down comforter.

The bathroom was across the other end of the living room. She crept through it in almost total darkness save for the blue glow of the clock light on the stove. She stepped through the opened bathroom door and flipped the light on, the brightness of the vanity bulbs reaching out into the hallway, illuminating something at the top of the stairs. Claire was standing at the landing of the second floor, looking into the spare bedroom.

From where Claire stood, she saw both Dean and Sam crashed out onto the old cot like beds Jody kept in there. They were both still in their clothes. Dean's hand was under his pillow, and Claire knew he was holding onto a gun. He slept turned towards Sam, who was doing the same thing, one of his long arms hanging off the bed in the empty space next to his brother. She held her breath the entire time she watched them, afraid that they would catch her, knowing that their instincts were wired to every little noise. But the night's events must have hit them both hard too, because neither of them so much as twitched.

Claire turned away from the room and spotted Alex watching her from the hallway on the first floor. She walked down the steps slowly in socked feet, meeting Alex at the bottom of the landing.

"They look so different when they're asleep," Claire said. "almost – _normal."_

"It's hard to believe they even _sleep_." Alex returned.

"I know," Claire agreed in low voice. "Is Jody out?"

"Yeah, I just walked by her room," Alex whispered. "Why are you awake anyway?"

"I never really went to sleep yet," Claire confessed. "Guess it's just all the adrenaline," she studied Alex, taking in all her bruises. "How are you? I never really asked after we got back."

"Alive," Alex said honestly, staring at the bruise under Claire's eye. "What about you? I mean, it was my fault you and Jody got taken in the first place."

"It's not like you knew that was going down like that."

"I probably should have," Alex reasoned. "Why _else_ would the most popular guy in the school be interested in me?"

"That guy was a little bitch," Claire returned. "You deserved way better than some sicko who pimps himself out to vampires."

"Yeah, well after today I'm swearing off guys for a while."

"C'mon don't say that," Claire said. "Not every guy is some blood sucking freak- and if they are, I still have my sword, I'll have your back."

"That's oddly comforting." Alex said.

"That's what family does- or so I hear."

Alex smiled, then turned back to Jody's room that she could see somewhat from across the living room.

"We really need to do something," Claire looked over at Jody's room too, seeing Jody dead asleep from obvious exhaustion. "We kind of owe her major after this."

"What about making breakfast in the morning?" Alex suggested.

"If she likes burned bacon, I'm in," Claire agreed.

"She should, I've made it enough times for her." Alex said.

Claire gave Alex a half-smile. "Deal."


	3. Chapter 3

**xxxxXxxxx**

" _Family isn't always blood, it's the people in your life who want you in theirs."_

-Unknown

 **xxxxXxxxx**

Sam had lived in the bunker long enough to be used to the fact that most of their living space was underground, which meant no windows, no morning sunlight filtering in, and no sounds of birds. So when he rolled over to the sound of a ruffled grouse calling in a drumbeat sound on the ash tree on Jody's property it disoriented him for a moment, until he remembered, with the added element of sore muscles and a headache, where he was.

"You're up-"

Sam opened his eyes fully to the sight of Dean standing beside the bed he had slept in the night before, already dressed, rolling up the sleeves on his blue flannel shirt. He was watching Sam like he had been waiting for him to wake up for a while.

Sam blinked and stared at the old digital clock perched on the maple nightstand, rotating it towards him to read the time: "Dude it's 7:30."

"You knocked out at eleven thirty Sam, that's like 30 Hunter Hours of sleep." He watched Sam sit up and swing his long legs over the bed and onto the floor like it was painful. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Something between a groan and a yawn escaped Sam's mouth as he dug the heels of his hands into his eyes hard enough to make spots dance in front of them. "I just need some aspirin."

Dean looted inside his duffle bag and produced an economy sized white bottle of pills, tossing them to his brother one handed.

"Thanks," Sam caught the aspirin bottle, shaking out three oblong pills into his hand.

Dean handed him a brown ceramic coffee cup.

"When did you get coffee?" The cup Sam held was half full and radiated warmth against his palm.

"I told you man, you were _out_ , and I got bored. Plus, Claire and Alex were downstairs burning the hell out of bacon and I had to put a stop to it."

Sam breathed out a laugh, swallowing all three pills at once with the black coffee that kicked as strongly as a horse blow to the chest. "What about Jody?" he handed the cup back to Dean.

"Didn't see her," Dean reclaimed his coffee cup. "I figured she finally sacked out after all of that hovering she was doing to everyone earlier – you included," he took a long pull from his coffee, swallowing with a sense of satisfaction at the warmth and bitterness.

"We should probably get downstairs and help out then, it doesn't exactly smell like you succeeded with the bacon not burning." Sam braced himself against the mattress and pulled himself to his feet. He ducked his head down slightly because the ceiling above where he was slopped down a good foot lower than the rest of it, and he already had one headache to deal with. Sleeping longer than he had in the last few days left him feeling more rested, but also slightly disoriented because he wasn't used to it.

"You sure you're good for that?" Dean watched Sam crouch over his duffle bag that lay on the floor with a slight wince.

"Dude, it's _bacon_ ," Sam stood back up with a fresh change of clothes, pulling himself up along the wall. "I know what it means to you."

"I do love it," Dean agreed. "Alright," he stepped over to where Sam was, briefly sizing him up making sure that he actually looked the way he claimed to be. "But first, you need to hit the showers, because you're not going near my bacon with that funk." He thumped Sam on the chest and walked out of the room.

 **xxxxXxxx**

Changing into pants with a broken leg in a brace was like a bizarre form of psychological torture. In order to get them up both legs, you had to stand up. But you _couldn't_ stand up on a broken leg, so you had to lay down flat on your back and try to yank them on completely horizontal, which also wasn't less painful because a mattress was pliable and soft. Jody felt as competent as she did trying to put on pants when she was pregnant with Owen.

She finally felt the denim slide in the right place on her body, and she let out an audible "yes!" in excitement, pulling up the zipper and moving her way back into a sitting position. She reached for her crutches which were leant against the side of the bed, using them as leverage to stand back up.

The pain hit her like plunging her leg into a tub of freezing water. She had been walking on one crutch all night, but she was now paying for the lack of support two crutches could've provided her. But the pain was sharp only for a few seconds longer before it dulled to something more manageable. She quickly checked the bruises on her face in the mirror that hung above her dresser. They had grown slightly darker, like a storm had encroached its way up from her mouth to her eyes. She touched a finger to one of the darkest patches; it felt like she was touching a blown up balloon. Her skin smarted when she pulled her hand away. She sighed.

The sound of a plate breaking from down the hallway snapped her attention away from her bruises. Her senses immediately kicked into over drive and she quickly limped her way out of the bedroom and into the living room. When she stepped out in the hallway, she smelled the scent of something burning in the air, but not like something was burning _down_ , more like something had been scorched on the stove.

As she neared the living room, she picked up the sounds of people talking in the kitchen. She stopped in the spot halfway between the sofa in the living room and the kitchen doorway she had long ago discovered was a vantage point to look in on people in the kitchen without anyone seeing her. It was how she caught Owen "baking" a cake made of brown sugar and dish soap in the microwave when he was five. The kitchen island was currently covered in broken egg shells and an inch layer of flour. Jody saw Alex at the stove scraping what looked like black burnt wood in an equally blackened frying pan with a pair of metal barbeque tongs.

"-god it looks like charcoal."

Claire hovered next to the stove beside Alex in a black sweater and jeans. "Just scrapped off the burned part, it'll be cool."

" _Every part_ , is the burned part," Alex said.

From behind Claire's shoulder Dean reached down and plucked one of the blackened pieces of bacon out of the pan, biting off half of it. He chewed for two seconds before coughing loudly.

"Oh come on," Claire insisted of the bacon she and Alex made. "it's not _that_ bad!"

"It's not good either," Dean threw the piece of uneatened bacon in his hand in the trash, and spat the mouthful he had chewed in there as well. He wiped at his face, trying to pluck the last pieces of grit out of from between his teeth. "There any left?"

"In the fridge," Alex said. "We didn't want to abuse all of Jody's food source."

"Wise choice," Dean returned. "Okay," he clapped his hands together like he was about to come up to bat at baseball. "How about you two toss out the rest of the charcoal brickets, and I'll show you how to do this right before you ruin an entire rasher of bacon."

" _You,_ know how to cook bacon?" Claire raised her eyebrows at Dean.

"You bet your ass I do," Dean returned.

"It's one of the five things he knows how to make that aren't microwavable," Sam said from where he was standing by the kitchen counter.

"Bacon is an essential food group little brother," Dean pointed out, moving in between Claire and the burned mess in the frying pan. "Alright-" he lifted the cast iron pan off the stove and threw the entire burned pile of bacon in the trash, shaking his head at the sight before setting the pan back on the stove eye. "Now the first thing you did wrong was over heat the pan. You do that, you might as well just cook it in the trash can, because it will all taste like garbage. You want to keep the temperature on the burner even-" Dean twisted the knob on the gas range, lowering the output of the flame below, so that it burned from bright orange to a lower blue. "And you also wanna wait out the pan heating up, or its going be raw rubber in the middle. Sammy, is there any butter in the fridge?"

Sam opened the old refrigerator with a pull on the off white painted door, removing a clear butter dish, he handed it off to Dean, face a little amused. "Julia Child-"

Dean took the dish, ignoring Sam's jab. "Alright," He lifted the lid off the butter dish and handed the butter over to Alex. "Cut off a good sized chunk and drop it in."

Alex got a spoon from the silverware drawer and scooped out some butter from the end of the stick, sliding it into the pan with her finger. The yellow glob landed with a melted sizzled into the frying pan.

"Now what Iron Chef?" Claire asked.

" _Now,"_ Dean peeled back the plastic off the remaining pieces of bacon, turning to face Alex and Claire both. "Each of you grab a piece of bacon. Hold them by the _ends,_ and drop them in one at a time, and keep them spaced out or the edges won't crisp."

Claire pulled apart one raw bacon slice from the slab, a silver thumb ring on her hand. She dangled one floppy piece in front of Alex. "This remind you of anyone you knew? -"

Sam cleared his throat behind them. He and Dean joked with each other all the time about some pretty dirty things, it was just – _weird,_ to hear the same coming from two girls who were technically still teenagers.

Alex snorted a laugh despite herself. "You're disgusting-" she dropped the piece of bacon into the frying pan with a little more aggression than something being cooked for breakfast.

Dean listened to the bacon sizzling in the pan with a look of pure satisfaction on his face. "Now _that's_ how you do bacon."

From the living room, Jody couldn't help but smile at the scene going on in her kitchen.

Sam shook his head at his brother, and in doing so, he finally caught sight of Jody standing there watching them.

"Hey," he came out of the kitchen and approached her, seeing her standing there being braced on two crutches. "You feeling better?"

"Sure." Jody returned. "In about six weeks I'll only be able to feel it when it rains."

Sam winced in sympathy.

"Stop looking at me like that," Jody looked down at her brace. "It makes me feel like Tiny Tim." She heard Sam laugh for a brief moment. "You get any sleep last night?"

"Yeah actually I did," Sam glanced into the kitchen where Dean was transferring his bacon to a plate that Alex was holding with the of precision reserved for handling crystal. "Dean thinks it was _too_ much."

"He's just looking out for you Sam," Jody said. "Having someone like that, kinda makes everything worth it."

"Hey Jody," Dean came out of the kitchen carrying the plate of bacon proudly in front of him.

"I thought I smelled burning bacon," Jody said to him.

"That was the girls," Dean pulled off a piece of bacon from the top of the plate and bit into it. "I don't burn bacon." He spoke while chewing, walking over into the dining room, setting the plate down on the table next to a plate of gummy looking pancakes and pitcher of orange juice.

"We tried to cook," Claire said to Jody, gesturing to the plate of pancakes. "The pancakes might be a little raw-"

"Yeah well bacon is _excellent_ ," Dean grabbed another piece off the plate as Sam cleared his throat, and Dean shot him a look before biting into the bacon anyway.

"We wanted to do something for you-" Alex's eyes wandered down to the brace above Jody's jeans, and all the bruises on her face.

Jody looked at her, then over at Claire who was looking at her the same way. "Okay, enough with the stares everyone, my leg didn't _fall_ off or anything!" She limped into the kitchen past Alex who was still watching her.

"I'm sorry he hurt you," Alex said. " _Both_ of you," she looked over Claire. She didn't have the courage to tell her this fully last night.

"It wasn't your fault Alex," Sam told her.

"Listen to him," Jody said. "We're fine, we're in three pieces more or less, it's okay."

"It's _not_ okay," Alex cut in. "You got hurt for something _I_ did!"

"What those _vamps_ did," Claire turned to Alex, the braids she put her hair into swinging from the movement. "You were a kid, you had to do what they said."

Alex looked up and away, the guilt still there.

"Alex," Jody walked over to her, setting a hand on the side of her bruised face. "You were ready to give up your life for us- that's _goodness."_ Alex gave just the briefest of nods, like she was trying very hard to believe it.

"And that's what's scary about family," Jody pulled back up on her crutch, rubbing Alex's back with her hand. "Gives you so much too loose." Her eyes found Claire's, then moved around the room to Sam then Dean as morning seeped its way into the room.

 **xxxxXxxx**

End

R/R please, and thank you.


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